Monday, August 15, 2016

Manafort

Breaking from the New York Times this morning:

Manafort.

Unbelievable:

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.

In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.

When combined with:

-The changes on Ukraine that Manafort demanded in the RNC platform, and;

-The remarkable, repeated and consummate efforts by Trump to encourage and collaborate with Putin--to the point of inviting Putin to hack his opponent;

It is fundamentally and completely disqualifying.

The typical Trumpian levels of exploitation, coercion, and graft have already begun--before even holding office.

Trump must not and cannot ever be President of the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html?emc=edit_ee_20160815&nl=todaysheadlines-europe&nlid=68174622&_r=0